MARC EMERY SHOULD NOT BE EXTRADITED

This editorial board has more than once presented its strongest moral
case for the Canadian government to block the extradition of Marc
Emery, the West Coast marijuana advocate who faces a possible life
sentence south of the border for operating a mail-order seed business
out of his Vancouver headquarters. It is our view that the
differences in the two countries' handling of seed vendors make
extraditing Emery a shameful abdication of judgment by the Canadian
authorities. Others have argued that (after a fair trial) he deserves
whatever punishment the Americans choose to slap him with. Some take
this view because they regard marijuana as dangerous and destructive,
others because the result of Emery's open goading of the Americans
was quite foreseeable and they find it hard to sympathize.

But now there is a fresh wrinkle in the proceedings, one that even
those most hostile to Emery's cause should be able to see the
absurdity of. Earlier this year Emery was able to arrange a plea
bargain with U.S. prosecutors that would see him accept a 10-year
sentence on their charges, of which he would serve half. Under the
deal his co-accused colleagues would go free and Emery would serve
the first 45 days of his sentence in the U.S., after which he would
be returned to Canada to finish his stretch in a more comfortable
Canadian prison.

All that was needed was the agreement of Canada's department of
justice. But last week, after a month of pessimistic media reports,
they gave a final "No." The Americans insisted on guarantees against
Emery being released before his five years was up, and such
arrangements are forbidden in Canadian law, so no Canadian judge can
order the application of such a sentence. That means Emery will have
to go ahead with the extradition proceedings that were held over in
the face of the plea-bargain, and face a possible life sentence down
south. Catch-22: because Canada is too humane and liberal to apply
the punishment that the Americans would like -- a punishment Emery
has voluntarily agreed to -- there appears to be no option but to
hand him over to the Americans without protection against much worse treatment!

It is time for the Minister of Justice to exercise his prerogative
and end an extradition farce that has become tainted with illogic as
well as inhumanity. If we have a legitimate social interest in seeing
Emery arrested, tried and imprisoned, why don't we do it ourselves?
Why was he permitted to run his business freely and openly in
Vancouver for years (a business recommended to legal users of medical
marijuana by Health Canada) and to pay hundreds of thousands of
dollars in federal and provincial taxes? How can a provision in the
criminal law be taken seriously when it's applied only upon the
urging of a foreign government?

Canadian police, conscious of the awkwardness, are in fact starting
to take belated and perhaps slightly shamefaced action against
Emery's fellow seed dealers. Earlier this month the B.C. Court of
Appeal upheld a sentence imposed on Vancouver Island vendor Daniel
Konstantin, who owned a prizewinning mail-order business advertised
in High Times magazine and had been caught with about three pounds of
seeds. Prosecutors had appealed the decision of the trial judge, who
had given Konstantin a month in jail plus probation. They thought the
sentence should have been all of 15 months. That's how seriously
Canadian justice takes this crime. And it is still a good deal more
seriously than many Canadians, presumably including the 10 million
among us who have tried marijuana at least once, would like.